Clostridium butyricum, as a probiotic with a variety of active products, has been widely used to improve the intestinal health of humans and animals. Previous studies had demonstrated that Clostridium butyricum exhibited potential protective and positive effects in human disease research and animal production by producing a variety of beneficial substances, such as intestinal inflammation, the intestinal epithelial barrier, metabolic diseases, and regulation of the gut microbiota. Therefore, we hypothesized that dietary Clostridium butyricum supplementation could improve gut health in fattening goats by modulating gut microbiota. However, it is unclear whether Clostridium butyricum can reach the intestine through the rumen, so 15 healthy Albas goats were selected and randomly divided into 3 treatments with 5 replicates in each group. The groups were divided as follows: control group (CON: basal diet), rumen-protected Clostridium butyricum group (RPCB: basal diet plus 1.0 × 109 CFU/kg Clostridium butyricum coated with hydrogenated fat), and Clostridium butyricum group (CB: basal diet plus 1.0 × 109 CFU/kg Clostridium butyricum). The experiment was slaughtered after a 70-day growth test, and the jejunal mucosa and intestinal contents of the goats were collected to determine tight junction proteins related genes expression and 16S rDNA microbial sequencing analysis to evaluate the intestine health. The results showed that dietary supplementation with Clostridium butyricum significantly increased the expression of the Claudin-4 gene of the jejunal mucosa (P < 0.05) and had a trend toward a significant increase in the Occludin gene (0.05 < P < 0.10). However, Clostridium butyricum had no significant effect on the expression of intestinal inflammatory factors (P > 0.10). In addition, the relative fractionation of Clostridium and Clostridiaceae_unclassified in the gut microbiota at the genus level decreased significantly compared with controls (P < 0.05). The results of the analysis of the level of Clostridium species showed that Clostridium butyricum only existed in the treatment group. And the correlation results showed that Occludin and Claudin-4 genes were positively correlated with Sharppea and Clostridium butyricum, and negatively correlated with Clostridium (P < 0.05). Supplementing Clostridium butyricum in the diet did not significantly affect the intestinal immune function of goats, while regulation of the intestinal microbiota was associated with improving the intestinal epithelial barrier.
Oat hay and alfalfa hay are important roughage resources in livestock production. However, the effect of the mixture of oat hay and alfalfa hay on the meat quality of Albas goats is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effects of feeding different proportions of oat hay and alfalfa hay on the growth performance and meat quality of Albas goats. Therefore, 32 goats were fed for 70 days and randomly divided into four treatment groups on the principle of similar weight: whole oat group (OAT), oat alfalfa ratio 3:7 group (OA73), oat alfalfa ratio 7:3 group (OA37) and whole alfalfa group (Alfalfa), with eight goats in each group. Daily feed intake records, feces, feed samples, and rumen fluid collection were made throughout the trial. The goats were weighed on the last day of the trial, and four goats per group were randomly selected for slaughter. Cecum contents, meat samples, and hot carcass weight were collected, and data were recorded. Furthermore, the relationship between the rumen and cecal microbes on performance and meat quality was clarified by analyzing the rumen and hindgut microbiomes. The results showed that feeding alfalfa could significantly reduce the daily weight gain of fattening goats. Compared with the highest group (OA37), the daily weight gain decreased by 19.21%. Although there was no significant change in feed intake in the four treatments, the feed conversion rate of the alfalfa group significantly decreased by 30.24–36.47% compared to the other groups. However, with the increased alfalfa content, MDA decreased significantly, T-AOC was up-regulated, and the antioxidant activity of the fattened goat meat fed with the high alfalfa group was significantly higher than that of the low alfalfa group. Notably, the abundance of Bacteroidales_unclassified and Clostridium were strongly correlated with T-AOC and MDA. Therefore, increasing the proportion of alfalfa in the diet can affect the antioxidant activity of goat meat by improving the gut microbiota, while an oat-hay mixture can improve the growth performance of livestock.
The mitigation and prevention of acute immune stress are essential for livestock production. Clostridium butyricum (C. butyricum) has shown positive effects in stabilizing intestinal microbiota disorders, improving immune function and inhibiting disease development, but its effects on ruminants are unclear. Therefore, the current trial hypothesized that C. butyricum could improve goats’ immune function and antioxidant capacity by regulating bacterial communities and blood metabolism and effectively alleviating the acute immune stress induced by Lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Sixteen healthy goats were fed C. butyricum for 70 days, and the goats were challenged with LPS on day 71. Blood and feces were collected at 0 h and 6 h after the challenge to evaluate the effects of C. butyricum on their intestinal microbiota, immune function, antioxidant function, and plasma metabolites. The results showed that C. butyricum had no significant effect on plasma biochemical parameters at the beginning of the LPS challenge. However, supplementation with C. butyricum increased plasma levels of IgA, IgG, T-SOD, and T-AOC (P < 0.05), but TNF-α, IL-6, and MDA were decreased (P < 0.05). In contrast, IL-10 showed an increasing trend (P < 0.10). Rectal microbiota analysis showed that C. butyricum significantly increased the relative abundance of Epsilonbacteraeota at the phylum level of goats; at the genus level, the relative abundances of Campylobacter and Anaerorhabdus]_furcosa_group were also significantly increased (P < 0.05). Christensenellaceae_R-7_group as the dominant microbiota also showed a significant increase in their abundance values, while Clostridium and Lachnospiraceae_UCG-001 were significantly lower (P < 0.05). When the LPS challenge continued up to 6 h, dietary supplementation with C. butyricum still resulted in significantly higher plasma concentrations of IgA, IL-10, and T-SOD in goats than in the control group, reducing TNF-α levels (P < 0.05). In addition, plasma levels of T-CHOL and LDL were significantly reduced, and the expression of d-proline was significantly upregulated according to metabolomic analysis (P < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary supplementation with C. butyricum helped optimize the expression of bacterial communities and plasma metabolites to enhance the ability of goats to alleviate acute immune stress.
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